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PUERTO Princesa—After a slow start, the Central Visayas Athletic Association is slowly flexing their muscle in the Day 3 of the 2008 Palarong Pambansa yesterday.

Yesterday, the Region 7 won seven gold medals, 11 silvers and five bronze medals yesterday to improve its medal tally to 14 golds, 11 silvers and six bronzes.

The bulk of the medals came from the elementary boys tennis team, which collared the top plum in the team event to win four golds. The team is spearheaded by regional champion Fritz Satera and Jacob Lagman.

The meet, however, relies on the number of points earned and not the number of golds and team competitions offers higher points than the individual events. It was not just a great birthday gift but a farewell gift as well for Lagman, who celebrated his birthday yesterday, as he is playing in his last Palaro in the elementary division. The team will compete for individual honors starting yesterday.

Meanwhile, there is a weak but steady flow of medals towards Central Visayas’ haul from the pool and from the tracks.

Keeping the tankers’ bids alive is Loren Dale Echavez, who is on her best Palaro by far. Competing in her fourth Palaro campaign, this is the first time Echavez won multiple golds. Last year, she finished her campaign with just one gold and two silvers and one bronze.

Echavez won her second gold in her best event, the 100 free, where she ousted NCR’s Hannah Dato. Echavez, who dominated the event even during the qualifying in the morning, finished in 1 minute and 2.14 seconds, while Dato and fellow NCR swimmer Roanne Florence Yu came in at her heels at 1:03.06 and 1:03.07, respectively. Echavez of University of San Carlos will still be competing in more events in the coming days.

Navaja, who just graduated from University of Cebu, won the gold in the 100 meter run of the secondary boys division, while Napoles won the gold medal in the triple jump of the elementary girls division.

Navaja, who was discovered accidentally a few years ago, has risen to the top of his batch as he won the Palaro title for two years in a row. He also improved his personal best of 11.5 seconds last year to 11.2 yesterday.

“I did not expect to win,” he said of his feat.

“I was still at City Central School and I was just jogging one day and I raced with them (group of athletes) during their practice and I won. That was how I started in this sport,” said Navaja, who also never expected that he will get offers for scholarship from different universities including Far Eastern University.

Napoles on the other hand, won the triple jump over Western Visayas’ Jennifer Laguna. Napoles jumped 10.11 meters, while her runner up had 10.09.

In the other ongoing events, the secondary boys tennis team continue their dominance. Larry Antigua and John Francis Largo scored an easy 8-0 win over Region 12 in the doubles contest. The match was so lopsided that it finished in just 15 minutes. Because of this, Region 9, which was supposed to play in the next match, handed the match to their opponent after they failed to get on the venue on time.

“They thought that the game will last a little longer than that but it did not. Now they were having a problem how to explain it to their officials,” said Central Visayas head coach Flor Arobo.

Meanwhile, the secondary girls volleyball team made it to the top four after trouncing Region 2, 25-17, 25-14. The elementary boys baseball team won over Calabarzon, 13-0.

(April 24, 2008 issue)

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